Apple Grants Employees Even More Bennies

Foxconn workers just don’t know how bad they have it. If only they were privy to the perks given out on this side of the world. And I’m not even referring to the low suicide rates.

We learned this week, courtesy of 9to5Mac, of the discounts galore lavished upon Apple Store employees. On top of the regular 25% price cuts for hardware, Cupertino announced on Wednesday an additional $500 off computers and $250 off iPads.

Now our noses are getting rubbed into an early preview of the company’s next OS that’s been given to Genius Bar members and Apple Creatives.

Imagine getting this email invite from your boss:

“Apple invites you to participate in a software seeding project. Our program, Apple Software Customer Seeding, provides customers with access to pre-release software so that they may explore new features, perform early compatibility testing, and submit feedback to Apple engineers. We have selected you to assist us in testing an upcoming release of OS X Mountain Lion.”

While casting a wider company net usually spells trouble for employees in China, over here it means extending its OS X Mountain Lion AppleSeed testing program. This marks the first time retail workers have been included as a part of Apple’s base of software experimenters.

Mountain Lion is scheduled to premiere to the public in July and the version Apple Store employees are getting a few weeks ahead of time is reportedly near-final release. This major update will feature over 200 modifications, including changes to the Notification Center, Twitter and Facebook (FB) sharing, iMessage, and AirPlay Mirroring.